stub
1 Americannoun
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a short projecting part.
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a short remaining piece, as of a pencil, candle, or cigar.
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(in a checkbook, receipt book, etc.) the inner end of each leaf, for keeping a record of the content of the part filled out and torn away.
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the returned portion of a ticket.
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the end of a fallen tree, shrub, or plant left fixed in the ground; stump.
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something having a short, blunt shape, especially a short-pointed, blunt pen.
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something having the look of incomplete or stunted growth, as a horn of an animal.
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Bridge. a part-score.
verb (used with object)
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to strike accidentally against a projecting object.
I stubbed my toe against the step.
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to extinguish the burning end of (a cigarette or cigar) by crushing it against a solid object (often followed byout ).
He stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray.
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to clear of stubs, as land.
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to dig up by the roots; grub up (roots).
adjective
noun
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a short piece remaining after something has been cut, removed, etc
a cigar stub
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the residual piece or section of a receipt, ticket, cheque, etc
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the part of a cheque, postal order, receipt, etc, detached and retained as a record of the transaction Also called (in Britain) counterfoil
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any short projection or blunted end
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the stump of a tree or plant
verb
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to strike (one's toe, foot, etc) painfully against a hard surface
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(usually foll by out) to extinguish (a cigarette or cigar) by pressing the end against a surface
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to clear (land) of stubs
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to dig up (the roots) of (a tree or bush)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stubsimple
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stubssimple
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have stubbedperfect
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has stubbedperfect
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am stubbingprogressive
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are stubbingprogressive
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is stubbingprogressive
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have been stubbingperfect progressive
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has been stubbingperfect progressive
Past
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stubbedsimple
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had stubbedperfect
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was stubbingprogressive
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were stubbingprogressive
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had been stubbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stub1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun stubb(e), Old English stybb, stubb, stebb “tree stump”; cognate with Middle Low German, Middle Dutch stubbe, Old Norse stubbi; akin to Old Norse stūfr “stump”; the verb is derivative of the noun
Origin of stub2
First recorded in 1705–15; special use of stub 1
Explanation
The small remainder of something is a stub. If you sharpen your favorite pencil obsessively, soon you'll be left with just a stub. Anything that's leftover or unusually short can be a stub, from the ticket stub you're handed in the theater to your dog's little stub of a tail. As a verb, stub most often means "strike painfully against something," and it's toes that you most often stub: "Put your shoes on before you run around in the yard, or you'll stub your toe again!"
Vocabulary lists containing stub
A Good Kind of Trouble
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How I Became a Ghost
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Milkweed
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It wasn't until 2021 that her killer was brought to justice after the cigarette stub recovered from her flat proved crucial.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
You can look at your latest pay stub and see your year-to-date tax withholding and your year-to-date retirement contributions, and think about whether switching to post-tax contributions would make a difference.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
But the definition of what kinds of overtime pay qualify is much trickier than just looking at the overtime line on a pay stub.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
When you touch a hot pan, stub your toe, or bump your head, your nervous system instantly delivers an “Ow!” that prompts you to pull back before more damage occurs.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2025
He got up from the writing table—rather slowly, for him—and, taking his cigar stub with him, reassumed his one-foot-up stance at the window seat.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
If one AI company stubs its toe, investors can expect other AI companies to say “ow.”
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
This has to be a change that has already happened and is documented on your most recent pay stubs or tax returns, he cautioned — not something projected to happen soon.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 28, 2026
Then, in January, Otter said she received two pay stubs but never got her salary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2025
The absence of pay stubs “raises questions about whether 1Fifty1 deducts employment taxes from its employees’ wages, as is required by federal and state law,” the complaint said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2025
I am at the end of this book; there are no further leaves to write upon, but the stubs of that quire I tore out to instruct my friends in writing.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Acute pain acts as a warning signal, starting when injured tissue, such as a stubbed toe, sends messages through the spinal cord to the brain.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 27, 2026
According to Roberts, Betts stubbed his toe after the team returned from this week’s trip on Wednesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2025
As she stubbed it out and prepared to go back into the meeting, she saw Tom coming in the opposite direction.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2025
Despite moving the ball effectively all night, the UW offense stubbed its toes at the most critical moments in the red zone.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 12, 2022
He kicked a pebble on the sidewalk in frustration and stubbed his toe.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
Maresca sent on Cole Palmer for the England forward's first appearance in two months after an injury-plagued spell that included fracturing his toe after stubbing it on a door.
From Barron's ● Dec. 3, 2025
After busting a big toe by stubbing it on her coffee table, Burke never goes barefoot.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 30, 2022
During an era where patience can be in short supply at the FBS-level, Pitt has stuck with Narduzzi while he’s fielded teams that have flirted with a major breakthrough while also stubbing their toes repeatedly.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2021
To help shape the boot and protect skaters from stubbing their toes, each boot has a hard protective cap called a box toe.
From New York Times ● Sep. 24, 2021
That’s why the pointless, toe- stubbing battle continued to rage.
From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
